Spotify is proud to be a home for American culture. As the nation marks its 250th anniversary, we wanted to take a look at how American artists, creators, and authors shape listening at home and around the world.
America leads the charts, at home and abroad
On any given day, people across 184 markets open Spotify and reach for something made in America. From songwriters outside Nashville to podcasters recording across the Rocky Mountains, from audiobook authors in New England to hip-hop producers in Atlanta, American artists, creators, and authors power what the world listens to.
Americans love listening to American music, and the numbers are striking: 69% of all streams in the country go to American artists, and American music makes up 70% of the Spotify Top 50 chart in the U.S. in 2025. Listeners in the South and Midwest stream the most music made in America: In just the past week, Mississippi topped the list, followed by West Virginia, South Dakota, Alabama, and Louisiana.
The artists driving those numbers capture the breadth of the American sound: Taylor Swift tops the charts both domestically and globally, while Bad Bunny, Morgan Wallen, Kendrick Lamar, and Post Malone are among the top most-streamed American artists in the U.S. Notably, Morgan Wallen has an exceptionally strong home-market audience, with 74% of his streams coming from U.S. listeners, which is the highest share among American artists.
The story doesn’t stop at the border. The United States is the world’s top exporter of music, and Spotify, which drives more music industry revenue than any other company, is what takes it everywhere. Beyond Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, and Eminem are among the most-streamed American artists of all time globally. In the past year alone, people outside the U.S. streamed songs featuring at least one American artist 776 billion times.
Pop, hip-hop, rock, indie, and country are the American genres most streamed domestically. Internationally, pop, hip-hop, rock, dance, and indie lead, and over the last five years, streams of American country music have grown more than 94% outside the U.S.
Every Independence Day, Americans cue up more than 650,000 Fourth of July playlists celebrating cookouts, block parties, road trips, and fireworks. Top searched tracks during the holiday include Bruce Springsteen‘s “Born in the U.S.A.,” Lee Greenwood‘s “God Bless The U.S.A.,” Katy Perry‘s “Firework,” John Mellencamp‘s “R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A.,” and Ray Charles‘ “America the Beautiful,” representing a playlist that spans decades but pulses with the same spirit.
American voices in every format
The reach of American creators on Spotify extends well beyond music. U.S.-created podcasts have been streamed in more than 180 countries so far in 2026, with The Joe Rogan Experience, The Mel Robbins Podcast, This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von, Huberman Lab, and Call Her Daddy leading Spotify’s global charts. The U.S. is Spotify’s number one podcast market in the world.
Many Americans feature on our global list of the top audiobooks of all time, with American author Sarah J. Maas being the most listened-to author of all time on Spotify. Works by American authors Freida McFadden (The Housemaid), Rebecca Yarros (Fourth Wing), Jennette McCurdy (I’m Glad My Mom Died), and James Clear (Atomic Habits) all feature on the global all-time list.
Investing in the people behind the culture
Celebrating American culture means investing in the people who create it. Spotify paid music rightsholders more than $11 billion in 2025, which is more in a single year than any company has ever paid. Much of that has flowed to American rightsholders: Royalties generated by U.S. artists from Spotify alone have more than doubled since 2019, with nearly half coming from listeners outside the U.S. Spotify is proud to help export American music and culture around the world.
Beyond the dollars, Spotify invests in the infrastructure that American artists and creators need for sustainable careers. Spotify for Artists gives musicians access to listener data and global promotional tools. Human editorial teams and programs like EQUAL and Fresh Finds have helped surface and invest in emerging American talent. Features like Reserved help real fans get real tickets to their favorite artists’ live shows in the U.S., while SongDNA lets listeners explore the writers, producers, and collaborators behind any song.
Across the country, Spotify has doubled down our investment in podcast creators. Earlier this year, Spotify opened Sycamore Studios In Los Angeles, a podcast production hub where guests like Snoop Dogg and author Andy Weir have recorded, alongside dozens of local creators.
Spotify’s audiobook investment has made books more accessible globally while unlocking new revenue for authors and publishers, driving up to 30% annual growth in the U.S. and paying out hundreds of millions of dollars to authors and publishers annually.
As AI reshapes the creative landscape, Spotify supports unlocking new ways for artists to create and for listeners to discover, while aggressively protecting against the misuse of generative AI. New initiatives like Artist Profile Protection, Verified by Spotify, and AI Credits, combined with our industry-leading policies, altogether strengthen protections for American artists, podcasters, and authors, and increase transparency for fans.
A stage the size of the world
From the blues to hip-hop, from the gramophone to podcasts, American culture never stops evolving, and Spotify has been proud to be the place where that evolution lives, streams, and spreads.
On America’s 250th birthday, we celebrate every songwriter who poured their heart out onto a page, every artist who ever played a small stage hoping someone would listen, every podcaster who hits record with a story to tell, and every author whose words find a reader halfway across the world. Spotify exists to give all of them, regardless of label, budget, or background, a stage the size of the world.
Happy Fourth of July, and here’s to the next 250 years of American sound!
Recent Comments